'Enough Is Enough' PAC Signs Pop Up All Over Burien

Residents may have noticed, among the sea of election campaign signs, a few news ones attributed by a new PAC, Enough is Enough.

“Burien became a city 30 years ago for the express purpose of stopping the city of Seattle and King County turning it into a dumping ground for low income housing developments. Burien wanted to be Burien. A quiet community of unique neighborhoods with a charming downtown district,” said leadership for the new political action committee PAC, Enough is Enough.

The PAC leadership, which is funded almost entirely by Burien residents, noted that as recently as 2022, the following statement was the introduction to the Burien Comprehensive Plan. “Since the City of Burien’s incorporation in 1993, Burien has fostered its distinct community character and is emerging as a vibrant, family-oriented community on the water’s edge of the Puget Sound. Residents of the City of Burien see it as a 

friendly community, rich in heritage, with well-established neighborhoods and a small-town atmosphere … “ Burien Comp Plan 2022 

Enough is Enough does not believe that still holds true with many people in the current leadership. “The focus seems to be on what the County or Seattle wants, not what is best for our city. And now even the city staff seems to be concerned about an ideology rather than the vision our community is purposed on,” leadership added.

It feels to some residents, that after Burien established itself as a city, that it didn’t take long for King County and Seattle leadership to realize that they could still have their way in Burien. All they needed to do was to make the financial investments required to control the City Council. 

Two egregious examples that were perceived to manipulate Burien leadership would involve two current city council members Jimmy Matta and Hugo Garcia.  King County Executive Dow Constantine hosted a fund raiser in Seattle raising $26,000 for Matta, rewarding his behavior shortly after his vote to bring Downtown Emergency Center DESC into Burien. 

Hugo Garcia, for whom Constantine created a special job just for him, supposedly after Garcia spoke in violation of campaign law, to a crowd on Constantine's behalf. Garcia also benefited from outside PACs in the amount of $8,419.71, Unions $4,042.00 and the Democrat Party $1,673.74 in his first 2021 race, according to PDC filings. Garcia had promoted the DESC project, while chair of the Burien Planning Commission. During that time he was also working for Dow Constantine. 

A simple review of the Public Disclosure Commission PDC of those two council members and others show the tight relationship between King County and other outside entities including Service Employees International Union SEIU, which appears to be a conflict of interest 

As Burien is not a deep-pocket city, outside groups can easily overwhelm the priorities of residents, with large funding from unions who don’t have  a stake in the overall health of Burien,because they don’t live here. For example, shortly after the Burien City Council passed a reasoned minimum wage that strived to serve all interests in Burien, the Transit Riders Union brought the “Raise the Wage” initiative to the Burien ballot to remove protections for Burien small business, mostly minority owned. 

The largest donor to the “Raise the Wage” campaign in Burien was the Transit Riders Union (TRU) of Seattle, which contributed $17,044.73 in combined cash and in-kind support. This accounted for the single biggest share of contributions to the campaign and illustrates TRU’s leading role in organizing and funding the effort. Nearly all (about 98%) of the campaign’s funding came from outside Burien, with major support also coming from other progressive groups and labor organizations, such as SEIU 775 and Washington Community Action Network. 

Up to this point, no local group has responded to the outside flood of cash and campaign muscle dictating policy and direction to both the city of Burien and the Highline School District. However, a few residents have said Enough is Enough and started a PAC by that name. 

Leadership from Enough is Enough says, “The PAC intends to support moderate candidates in the Highline School Board and Burien City Council races. It is not concerned about Republican,Independent or Democrat parties. The focus will be on common sense candidates who will put the welfare for students and residents before special and outside interests.”